Fan confidence increases as Yankees get red hot

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Yankees fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

If the Yankees ever wanted to boost their popularity among fans, it turns out all they have to do is play the 2019 Orioles. The team handled the Birds with authority, and in the process, they snapped fans out of their post-trade deadline malaise.

For the last two weeks, fan confidence in the team stood at 73%. That’s noticeably low for a team performing so well. Feasting on the Orioles appears to have helped, as does winning eight of their last 10 games. Now 81% of fans believe the team is headed in the right direction.

As for Aaron Boone, he sports an 84% fan approval rating. That’s technically down from last week’s 85%, but consider the last few totals:

Week 17: 82%
Week 18: 86%
Week 19: 83%
Week 20: 85%
Week 24: 84%

I think Boone plateaud here, and the fluctuations from week to week just represent noise. It’s clear his popularity sits in the low-to-mid-80s.

As for this week’s national poll, SB Nation asked respondents if they believe MLB juiced the ball to create more offense.

A majority of those surveyed indicated they do believe this. That checks out, as offense has exploded across the board and at the Triple-A level, where the MLB ball gets used. Pitchers like Justin Verlander, Masahiro Tanaka, and Zack Britton have all gone on the record discussing the differences in the ball. It’s clear something is going on with it.

If you missed out on this poll but would like to join us for future ones, sign up at the link above. We’ll have more questions and answers next week!